About Me

I'm a Social Studies teacher and single mom from Colorado and have lived here for 9 years. Taiwan is an excellent base for us explore Asia, while living in relative (gun free) safety, while benefiting from a cheap and efficient national health care system. The people are amazing too. I have friendships that are 14 years old and I'm always making new ones.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Pili Puppets 霹靂

You can not flip through the channels here and not see Pili Puppets 霹靂 on somewhere. From my first moments here, Z and I were pretty mesmerized (well at least for a few minutes). I appreciate how Taiwan has preserved Chinese cultural history. When Fujian immigrants came to Taiwan and intermarried with the indigenous, they brought their hand puppets and their old Taoist/Gong Fu legends and stories. Taiwan has taken this folk art to the next level, an international TV series and film (Legend of the Sacred Stone).

The Taoyuan airport has this incredible exhibition of the Pili Puppets of Taiwan. As I was checking in at Singapore Air, there on the TV monitors were the Pili puppets explaining the airport's rules and regulations using their typical drama. I found it entertaining at 4 in the morning.

The Roles/Characters:
The Sheng Role生 has the three variations: The Elegant scholar (wen sheng), the man with martial arts skills (wu sheng) and the older male (lao sheng).

The Dan character is the female role and has four variations: The young, unmarried, mischievous adventurer (xiao dan), the refined daughter from a wealthy family (zheng dan), the elderly woman (lao dan) and the comical female character (chou dan).

Su Huan Jeng素還真

Fei Yu Yuan J

The Mo role末is the elderly man character and has to variations, the man who speaks (bai kuo) and the ones who don’t speak (cun gong).

Hao KunL

The Jing character 淨 is the face painted role. A race painted red means he is loyal, if yellow, honest, black represents a violent temper and green signifies a villain.

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Luo Huo

The Chou character丑is the clown and usually has a white spot painted on the nose.He/she is also called the ‘little white flower’ (xiao hua lian) and there are four types; the female comic relief (chou dan), the military chou, the literary chou, and the regular chou.

Qin Jia Xian

葉小釵Ye hairpin, xiao chai(scar) is the most tragic and popular character. His famous nickname is “crazy sword” or ” mad blade” he is a silent swordsman. His shoulder length white hair and the slash of a sword on his face make him more distinctive. His unbeatable fighting techniques make him the number one warrior.

Animation Collective developed Wulin Warriors for American television, created the show bible and episode scripts and 13 half-hour episodes, which premiered on Cartoon Network in February '06. Check out the opening theme song below: